Every few months it seems there is news that focuses our attention on the perennially pitiful job schools do in improving reading. The proposed solutions are predictably pitiful as well. Schools that have been doing A should check out B, and schools that have been doing B might want to try C. The options for school-wide […]
TED is an acronym for an organization focused on Technology, Entertainment and Design* that seeks to share recent developments and big ideas in these three areas of rapid growth. TED is most commonly encountered in the short phrase, TED Talks, which are 18-minute short lectures/presentations by clearly brilliant people on topics that a large number of folks who […]
Public schools in the U.S. on a traditional schedule are closing for the summer, with buses making their final run full of chattering children, excited to be finished with the school game for a few months. But unfortunately, this also is often the first day of the Summer Slide, the path taken by way too […]
Recently the International Reading Association (ILA) has promoted its 10-point “bill” of Children’s Rights to Read. I’ve written about this before during ILA’s push earlier this year to get everyone on the planet to endorse these rights. I bring this up again, because I’m a believer that with every right comes some form of responsibility. For example, the right to vote carries with it the responsibility […]
Dear Parents, Siblings and Family Members, Reading a book for a younger child? Excellent. Asking your kiddo to retell the story? Sure, if that’s fun. Quizzing the little one on particulars of a story or informational text? Uhhhhh, No. Each of the above might be seen as a way to support a child’s developing literacy […]
Each year the International Literacy Association (previously known as the International Reading Association) publishes three Choices Reading Lists which identify the choicest books published within the last year as selected by three groups: children, teens and professionals. The Choices Reading Lists offer titles and brief teaser-descriptions of the books that are surefire winners for those three populations. As […]
My wife and I share-read each of the Harry Potter books as soon as they came out. We took turns reading them aloud to each other, starting with the first book in 1997. By the time we read Deathly Hallows, the earlier books had faded from our memory and we talked about re-reading them. Parents will […]
Try to feed her. She doesn’t want a bottle. Burping her doesn’t help. Diaper check! Nope. Holding and rocking her to sleep? No luck. Singing and dancing with her? Nada! She keeps looking around apparently trying to tell you what’s wrong, but you just don’t get it, so both of you are getting more frustrated by the minute. Been […]
I’m happily involved in a few elementary schools with a project supported by Kentucky Humanities called Prime Time Family Reading Time. It’s an effort to alter the nature of what is considered a good dinner-table conversation or travel-time discussion that include everyone on the proverbial (or perhaps literal) bus. The objective of Prime Time is to […]
In “Serious Fun,” a new book from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), editors Marie Masterson and Holly Bohart invite early childhood education experts to explore the power that play adds to any educational experience. Play can be totally free, or it can be “guided” — where education and play naturally converge. That is […]
